Fictitious persons and real responsibilities

I believe that corporations should be held responsible for their actions. Traditional discussions about the moral responsibility of an organization have relied on a model of criminal intent. Demonstrating intent demands that we find a moral agent capable of intending, and this has led to problems. H...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Gibson, Kevin (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 1995
In: Journal of business ethics
Year: 1995, Volume: 14, Issue: 9, Pages: 761-767
Further subjects:B Real Responsibility
B Moral Responsibility
B Moral Agent
B Corporate Environment
B Economic Growth
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Summary:I believe that corporations should be held responsible for their actions. Traditional discussions about the moral responsibility of an organization have relied on a model of criminal intent. Demonstrating intent demands that we find a moral agent capable of intending, and this has led to problems. Here I replace the analysis based on criminal law by one based on tort law. Under this framework I suggest that corporations can be held responsible for the harms caused by their activities even if no person or persons in their decision making structure had formed malicious intent, since the sheer fact that the corporate environment encouraged or allowed negligence will be sufficient.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/BF00872329